_**2\. PLAYERS**_
* Fines up to $100,000 or up to the breach amount
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* Suspension of up to 3 months
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* Cancellation of contract and must play with another club
I'm not a contract lawyer, but I'm guessing putting financial penalties on players might be hard to do. The clubs are the ones that have the salary cap agreement with the competition, and it would be hard to argue that it's a player's responsibility to ensure that their employer is compliant with that agreement. I'm sure there have been players that "know" their top-up payments are dodgy, especially when you're talking about literal brown envelopes full of cash, but again it's not the players that have the responsibility for the way a club runs its business.
In addition, outside of the cap there's nothing actually illegal about players receiving payments from third parties (assuming they declare them for tax and so forth - and even that would between the player, his accountant and the ATO, nothing to do with the NRL). If Nick Politis's mates want to take James Tedesco golfing and chuck him $20,000 for his time, that's not an issue so far as the law is concerned. That puts the comp in very dubious legal territory when it comes to penalising players because there would be all sorts of issues around restraint of trade, unfair dismissal and so forth.
I'm also guessing the NRL is very cautious about punishing players for this sort of stuff anyway, especially given the big cap-breach scandals started when there was a very live threat from the UK, rugby etc. The threat of losing your livelihood because you've taken a few extra quid here and there would be a pretty big incentive to sign for a rival comp or code.
If that was the case, I’d argue that salary cap rorting is on par with match fixing.
It’s about the integrity of sport in this country and should be covered under the same laws as match fixing laws.
Fines, contract cancellations and criminal proceedings should not be off the table.
You've missed the point.
Match fixing is something a player does for themselves. It breaks a contract with the player's employer, which presumably contains clauses about integrity and appropriate effort.
The difference is that complying with the salary cap is a club's responsibility, not a player's. For one thing, it would be very hard to prove that a player knows that money they take that would otherwise be legal is in fact outside the cap. The NRL doesn't have the right to demand players' tax returns, and even if it did it would struggle to prove that amount X was paid to player Y for playing for club Z rather than just for services rendered unrelated to the game.
Even if the NRL is pretty damn certain a player or players knew they were being paid outside the cap, as I say the player(s) would have a decent case if they sued the NRL, because it's not up to them to ensure clubs are cap compliant.
It's all well and god talking tough about player penalties for cap breaches, but in practice it would be much harder to do than you think. There's a reason why the NRL has never gone after players.
